Top SPG post for IB officer

A series of low intensity blasts had rocked the rally venue hours before Modi was to deliver his speak.

A 1989-batch Gujarat cadre IPS officer Vivek Srivastava, currently posted as Inspector General in the Intelligence Bureau, has been appointed as Inspector General in the Special Protection Group (SPG).

An order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training Wednesday said his term in the SPG will be treated as deputation from IB and he will return to IB on completion of this deputation. The order, however, did not give details about the tenure of this deputation.

Since Srivastava will be the seniormost officer in the elite force, he looks set to officiate as the Director of SPG. While stripping off former SPG Director K Durga Prasad off his charge—even as he was accompanying Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his SAARC visit in Kathmandu-the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had “directed that the charge of Director of Special Protection Group may be looked after by the next senior most officer till the appointment of a suitable successor”.

Vivek Srivastava was one of the officers who was sidelined in 2002 for not allowing communal riots to spread after the train burning incident in Godhra. He was then the Superintendent of Police, Kutch district, and was one of the four SPs who were assigned insignificant posts for not toeing the official line. Srivastava was posted to the prohibition and excise department, but he chose to leave Gujarat on deputation to the SPG and then to the IB.

Posted in Patna, Srivastava had warned about then Gujarat chief minister and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi being targeted at the October 2013 Hunkar rally. A series of low intensity blasts had rocked the rally venue hours before Modi was to deliver his speak.